Katalmach Duskclaw
Introduction General Katalmach Duskclaw is the current leader of the Warsong Blades, a military order and division of the Warsong Offensive. He maintains permanent quarters in Conquest Hold, but often stays at Warsong Hold, Kargathia Keep, and Orgrimmar. Appearance : : Katalmach stands at six feet five inches tall. He is as muscled and battle-scarred as one would expect of an orcish military commander. He wears a short beard and keeps his hair braided. His eyes are brown-green, and rest beneath extremely bushy eyebrows. His entire chest is covered by a single tattoo of a wolf’s head. Personality : :Katalmach is a hard orc, like most Warsong. He has been a soldier for most of his life, and as a consequence of the commitments he and those close to him have made to the Horde, he has no patience for those whom he considers cowardly, disloyal or unwilling to commit. He is a Horde supremacist, committed above all to the future of the Horde and the Orcish people. He is loyal to those who earn his respect and affection, and dismissive of those who have not. He is a warrior not of words, but of considered action. Socially, he is more introverted than he cares to admit. The Early Years : : : Katalmach was born the son of Yaisog Bonesplinter, an orcish raider who was revered for his ferocity and cunning, and Gorva Redspear, a shamaness, to the Warsong Clan on the world of Draenor. Yaisog was one of Grommash Hellscream’s warlords, and commanded a force of Warsong worg-rider cavalry into battle. Katalmach's mother, Gorva, died of natural causes in the first few years of Katalmach's life, and he lacks memory of her. : : : Katalmach was the seventh of Yaisog’s sons, the youngest of the lot. His brothers were all powerful warriors, every bit as fierce as their father. Katalmach was slightly smaller than his brothers had been throughout his developmental stage, which resulted in him often being referred to as the “runt of the litter”. Katalmach, however, seemed to have inherited the bulk share of his father’s cunning. The young orc was hunting as soon as he was old enough to walk, and his ability to apply his mind to the hunt resulted in him becoming a skilled hunter at an early age. Because his father and his brothers were all raiders, Katalmach practically grew up in and around the stables. The young orc was often given the duty of stabling and maintaining his family’s many worgs, and he developed an affinity for the beasts He would often hunt the plains of Nagrand, the forest of Terrokar, and the the steppes of Hellfire Peninsula in his youth, with his faithful hunting wolves at his side. : : : :The Warsong Clan did not cross into Azeroth with Blackhand at the time of the First War, but the Path of Glory and the Stair of Destiny that lay beyond it would pull the Warsong Clan in their wake. Much of Katalmach's youth was spent in a time that the Clan was in preparation for the time it would cross over to glorious conquest in the new world. Katalmach would always remember the awe he felt when he accompanied his father on a trip to Hellfire Citadel, for the mighty fortress made an impression on the gruntling.When the Clan finally did pass through the Dark Portal at the behest of Ner'zhul, the young Katalmach eagerly awaited the time that he could prove himself as a warrior, and become an orc like his father. : : : : :It was during this time on Azeroth that Katalmach's training and education as a soldier began. As he grew older, his father called him more and more often to his side. Yaisog enjoyed talking with his youngest pup about strategy and battle plans, as none of his other offspring had ever shown an affinity for the mental side of warfare. Yaisog referred to these discussions as “war games”, when they were in fact the tactical eventualities and standing battle plans that he has been working to use against the alliance. Young Katalmach always seemed to know just where to strike, just where an ambush should be set, and many of his youthful suggestions actually became implemented in the battle plans that his father presented to Chieftain Hellscream, though Katalmach himself never knew it. Katalmach never knew that his father had chosen him, above all his brothers, to be his heir and successor, and was grooming him for the role of a great Warsong commander. Before Yaisog could further implement his plans for his son, he was dead. : : : :Where other Clans of the Horde had been captured and forced into interment in the aftermath of the Second War, only the Warsong Clan remained free and undefeated. Grommash's determination kept his people free from the lethargy that afflicted lesser orcs, and his cunning allowed the Warsong to live free in the wilds of Lordaeron. The Clan fought minor skirmishes during this time, as it raided and pillaged smaller human settlements. But it was not until the Warsong Clan joined forces with the Frostwolf Clan to free the orcs in internment that Katalmach would fight in his first full-scale battle. : : : : The battle of Hammerfall was a great victory for the Horde. Though it was a victory, many orcs lost their lives, Orgrim Doomhammer among them. It was a particularly great loss to the family of Yaisog Bonesplinter. The great raider, despite his cunning, always insisted on being the first of his men to meet the enemy. With his sons at his back, he led a devastating charge against the Alliance forces. However, when the dust settled, Yaisog Bonesplinter and six of his sons were dead. The great raider himself had continued fighting even after being dismounted by a pike thrust that impaled him through the abdomen. When he finally died from the wound, his body rested atop a pile of human corpses so large that no single inch of him was in contact with the ground. : : : : Yaisog and his six sons were all burned in funeral pyres built atop the foes they had slain. Hellscream himself spoke at the funeral, saying that no one family had ever earned such great honour in a single battle. The funeral of Yaisog and his sons become a great celebration, and orcs drank and cheered for their victory and the spirits of the fallen. One orc was conspicuously absent from the merriment. Katalmach had always feared, respected and loved his father, fiercely and in equal measure. He understood that he should be feeling proud that his kinsmen had died in such an honourable blaze of glory, but instead he felt an aching loss in the pit of his stomach. He never came to terms with the death of his father and brothers, and why it affected him in such a non-orcish way. In his heart, resentment started to grow for the way of life that wanted martyrs more than it did survivors. In the years that followed, Katalmach continued to serve his clan in battle. His formidable hunting skill earned him his second name, “Duskclaw”. Many who knew him, especially those who had been in his father’s command, expected him to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a great commander. However, he showed no interest in such a path. In battle he would serve his clan to the best of his ability, with all the skill and ferocity one would expect of his bloodline. But when battle was over, he withdrew from the clan, spending his time in his own company and that of his worgs. Any expectations held for him were discarded in time, and he became just another common soldier. The Third War and Beyond : When Thrall led his people across the ocean to the distand lands of Kalimdor, the Warsong Clan followed its Warchief. On arrival, the Warsong Clan was separated from Thrall. When Grommash discovered that humans had followed the orcs to Kalimdor, the two groups erupted into conflict once again. Thrall eventually restored order, but Grom would ignore the Warchief's orders and lead the Warsong Clan in a series of raids against the Alliance refugees from Lordaeron. Katalmach, by now a fully grown raider, fought in these battles. : : : :Time soon brought Katalmach to the second defining battle of his life. The Warsong clan had just established itself cutting lumber in Ashenvale, and Katalmach served as a sentry at one of the lumber camps. When the demigod Cenarius led a host of night elves and beasts against the Warsong, Katalmach found himself in the thick of it. The night elves overwhelmed the western lumber camps, and Katalmach nearly lost his life in the initial assault. He managed to rally a group of survivors and lead them safely to the camps on the eastern side of the river as Cenarius began restoring the forest. The night elves left an impression on him. He hated them, as all orcs should hate their enemies, but their way of fighting, of ranged combat and beast mastery, was astonishing to see on such a scale. When Grom left to take the fight to Cenarius, guided by the Darkspear witchdoctors, Katalmach was one of the men left behind to keep the night elves from overwhelming the remaining camps. When Grom returned with the blood of Mannoroth, Katalmach was hesitant about consuming it, but his survival instinct took over and he succumbed to the demonic power along with the rest of his clan. The time between this moment and the moment that Mannoroth’s power over the Warsong was broken became a red haze for Katalmach, and his memories from the time have been suppressed as much as possible. Since regaining freedom, however, he has sworn to never again fall under fell influence. : : : : After the end of the Third War, Katalmach didn’t know what to do with himself. He felt disconnected from his clan, and departed Ashenvale to begin traveling this new land that they had found. With his wolf companion Shakar, a ghostpaw alpha from Ashenvale, he began his travels through Kalimdor. Living in the wilds of Kalimdor, he gained a great respect for the land and the beasts that lived there. Though he lived in the wild, he was not a complete recluse. He took several jobs which suited his skills and temperament, including some work as a mercenary and tracker. Katalmach stayed in no one place for long, and his only constant companions were his wolf and his thoughts. : : : : Eventually Katalmach found himself in Desolace, and before he could navigate his way out of this hellish wasteland, he was captured by Kolkar centaur. The centaur took brutality to a level far beyond even what he was accustomed to as a Warsong orc. The Kolkar kept him alive for weeks, seemingly for some brutal sport that had planned. Katalmach was not alone; the Kolkar had another orcish prisoner. Logram was his name, and he was an old orc whom Katalmach gathered had been a shaman. During their captivity, the two orcs talked when they could, as a means of dealing with the brutal conditions and the soullessly bleak environment. Logram was interested as to why an orc in his prime would be so far from his clan. Katalmach related his life to the old orc, and explained, for the first time to another creature, that ever since his father’s death he had felt no connection to his clan, and that his orcish spirit was nigh depleted. Logram understood, and said that it is a state of being that a few orcs every generation are faced with. He called it the “creeping death”, and said that it was a slow doom, an affliction of the spirit. Katalmach asked him how this creaping death could be cured, and Logram’s reply was “if you decide that you are cured, you will be.” Katalmached asked him to elaborate, and the old orc's next words were forever burned into his memory. “As a tree without roots will die, as a fortress without foundation will fall, an orc without a clan is nothing. If you want your honour back, if you want to regain your orcish spirit, you must return to your clan. It must be done not out of obligation or necessity, but of your own will and desire. If you return to your clan, not only in body but in soul, you will save yourself. To cease being nothing, you must rise and become something.” : : : : Logram died soon. He was too old for whatever games the centaur had planned, so he was killed and eaten. Katalmach grieved for him, and thanked his spirit for his wisdom. Shortly after, a large force of Kolkar departed. From the small understanding of the centaur tongue he had gained, Katalmach gleaned that the Kolkar were marshalling against the Tauren of Mulgore, who had now grown strong enough to pose a threat to the centaur of desolace. This commotion gave Katalmach the chance he needed. He had managed to hide a piece of kodo rib bone under the blanket in his cage a week earlier when it had been blown within arm’s reach by a dust storm. Using it, he broke the lock on his cage, and snuck out of the camp. He was under nourished, practically naked, and alone in the wastes of Desolace. The Kolkar did not pursue him, perhaps because they did not believe he would survive to leave Desolace. A few weeks later, a starved, dehydrated orc stumbled into Sun Rock Retreat in Stonetalon, his weight mostly supported by an emaciated wolf that could have once been white, but was so covered in dust and ash as to appear black. The tauren innkeeper took him in, gave him water and food, and let him rest. After a few days of both orc and wolf doing nothing but sleeping, eating and drinking, the orc asked the innkeeper for some clothes and an old hunting knife she kept by the fireplace. When she told him that he could stay until he was fully recuperated, his reply was; “No lass, I’m going home.” Return to the Warsong Duskclaw returned to the lumber camps of Ashenvale and the Warsong clanhold of Kargathia Keep. He was a new orc, reinvigorated with a passion and determination that he had not known since the death of Yaisog. Those of the clan who had known the great raider started to see that his son had finally inherited his fiery spirit. Katalmach returned to his clan in a time of turmoil. The Silverwing Sentinels had launched a new series of offensives against the lumber camps, and, while the Warsong relished combat, the night elves rarely gave the orcs the opportunity to face them openly. Katalmach was quick to bloody himself in defense of the camps, and his accomplishments earned him the honour of being admitted into the Warsong Blades, the prestigious warrior brotherhood that served as General Speatus Crimsonwolf's elite force. In time, Katalmach's tactical contributions to the war effort resulted in his promotion to Worgmaster of Ashenvale, responsible for the protection of Horde holdings in Ashenvale while the General and other Warsong forces focused their attention on the new battlefront in Northrend. The newly appointed Worgmaster had come to an unsettling conclusion; that the night elves were being aided by traitors from within the Horde in their efforts against the orcs. He spearheaded the campaign to put an end to this threat to Orgrimmar with a new initiative; placing the Horde-controlled regions of Ashenvale under lockdown and martial law. This received the approval of General Crimsonwolf, who petitioned Garrosh Hellscream for authorization to put such a bold restriction into effect, which was granted. Katalmach's soldiers swiftly barred civilian access into Ashenvale, detaining any who stood in open defiance of Hellscream's order. With Ashenvale so restricted, he lured the night elves into the open by striking where it hurt. Warsong scouts diligently located creatures called "Ancients", the massive tree guardians that were sacred to the kal'dorei. Leading raids against the creatures, Katalmach had many of them put to the torch or cut down and shipped to the lumber camps (he would later send Garrosh the gift of a new banquet table carved completely from the body of an Ancient of War). This forced the Silverwings to mobilize openly in a desperate attempt to prevent any more Ancients from being found and killed. A series of battles would follow, and while the resulting Warsong victory did not end the war in the Gultch, it did force the night elves into a more defensive, conservative strategy. Katalmach's satisfaction at these events was short lived. New news came from Northrend; Speatus Crimsonwolf was dead, slain in Icecrown by the unliving legions of the Scourge. At the same time, Krohlm Blackblade, a Warsong Deathknight whom Speatus had given command of the Icecrown Offensive, mysteriously disappeared. Speatus' brother, the Blademaster Krusg Crimsonblade, was also believed dead at the time. In the wake of this blow to the Blades, Katalmach was appointed by Garrosh as Speatus' successor. The newly appointed General Duskclaw remained in Ashenvale for a month to tie off loose ends, before moving his command to the fortress of Conquest Hold in the Grizzly Hills region of Northrend. With this rise to command, Katalmach has at last achieved his father's hopes for him, and now serves Garrosh Hellscream and the Horde with a loyal, unwavering heart. Category:People Category:Orcs Category:Warsong Blades